RSS and Information Snacking
June 25, 2005 Leave a comment
The web has taken note of RSS in a big way.
The standard is has been around since early 2001. While there may be some confusion as to the meaning of the acronym (Rich Site Summary, Rich Document Format (RDF) Summary Stream, Really Simple Stream, and more), RSS syndicates and shares content. I’m going with Really Simple Syndication.
RSS allows a user to select sites and topics that feature information that matters to them. Rather than surfing through a number of sites and refreshing multiple times, the user uses an aggregator to subscribe to sites of interest. The RSS aggregator pulls down the information at user-defined intervals. The user goes to one application to “snack” on the news of their personal interest.
This Information Snacking increases both our personal productivity (less time spent chasing information) and the sheer volume of information we can consume.
There are a number of aggregators already on the market and the standard is a core technology in Microsoft Windows.
Original Post: June 25, 2005